With so many things to deal with these days–money, time, other people, work, health, and a plethora of other things–it’s no wonder that people have become more stressed out. Organizing clutter usually helps, by allowing one to gain quicker and easier access to documents, papers, and the like. Sometimes, though, this just doesn’t help–stress is still abundant, and there’s just so much to do.
Area and Stress
It might be noticed that having many things and much space to put them is more efficient than general clutter, but it’s the equivalent of buying a bigger house to accommodate more stuff (as George Carlin put it.) Just buying more stuff doesn’t help; you always need a bigger house. And with a bigger house, just as with a bigger desk, comes bigger responsibility. If you have a row of tables and your computer is at the very end, then accessing things becomes more difficult than putting the computer in the middle. Additionally, it is unlikely that the entirety of stuff in the nearby pile of stuff is important, so why not remove it? Now there’s a good amount of space to accommodate a proportionally good amount of stuff. Still, there is room for improvement.
More dimensions
So now there’s a row of tables and some stuff. There is still room for stress; some things go there, other things go there, and, inevitably, clutter develops. In a work setting, however, clutter is probably less prevalent, because of peering eyes that judge the worker from the visible work. Therefore, there is more motivation to clean up the clutter. At home, however, there is more room for expansion. Setting up the row of tables in a corner suddenly expands the possibilities, allowing for more comfort and accessibility with the amenities of the home.
More space can lead to more stress, since stress can be a result of having too much stuff, and having too much stuff tends to be a result of having too much space! Cutting down on space isn’t necessary; it’s just how the space is arranged that matters.